Public Law Review (PLR)

Critical analyses of public law and statutory interpretation

About the JournalPublic Law Review (ISSN: 1034-3024) is an influential and widely cited legal journal. The articles and commentary allow readers to stay on top of public law developments in Australasia and in other parts of the common law world. The subject of public law is broadly conceived, covering all aspects of law and government.

A feature of Public Law Review is the commentary, recent developments and book review sections, bringing to public lawyers in government, private practice and the courts coverage of topical issues and legal literature.

Articles published are critically appraised or reviewed by an academic or professional peer of the author for the purpose of maintaining the standards of the journal.

The Australian Legal Journals Index is an online legal database prepared by the Lionel Murphy Library of the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department. It is produced by Thomson Reuters and is available via subscription.
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Contents listing
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By Paul Kildea and George Williams* This comment was published in the Public Law Review at (2011) 22 PLR 9. The Water Act 2007 (Cth) is the most extensive Commonwealth intervention into water resource management in Australia since Federation. The Act brought the Murray-Darling Basin1 under Commonwealth management in order to remedy a longstanding over-allocation ...more

By Julie Debeljak* The decision of R v Momcilovic concerned the rights-compatibility of a reverse legal burden of proof under drug control legislation. The Victorian Court of Appeal held that the reverse onus provision was an unjustified limit on the right to the presumption of innocence under s 25(1) of the Charter of Human Rights ...more

The March 2011 issue of Public Law Review contains comments and articles on outsourcing, the Murray-Darling Basis Plan, the Momcilovic Court and the Victorian Charter of Human Rights, and the role of the Governor-General in forming government in a hung Parliament.

Over 2009 and 2010, the Australian Research Council undertook to rank journals in the Arts & Humanities Sector as part of the “Excellence in Research for Australia” initiative. Law journals were included in the ranking. Now the rankings that were assigned are being reviewed and new rankings will be released in 2012. Thomson Reuters has observed there may be some unintended long-term consequences of the ERA methodology and outcomes. To communicate these concerns, we have released a position statement.

By James Allan. I am a bill of rights sceptic. A good number of the peer reviewed law journal articles I have written in the last decade or so, plus a bunch of book chapters, have been related to the issue of bills of rights, about a couple of dozen such pieces.

By Leighton McDonald. In Plaintiff S157/2002 v Commonwealth (2003) 211 CLR 476, the High Court held that s 75(v) of the Constitution entrenches a “minimum provision of judicial review” which limits the effectiveness of statutory attempts to impair the judicial review of Commonwealth administrative action and constitutes a “textual reinforcement” of the “rule of law”.

By Chris Finn. In Kirk v Industrial Relations Commission (NSW) (2010) 239 CLR 531, the High Court has made a strong statement setting out a clear Ch III basis for supervisory judicial review of inferior courts and tribunals acting under State legislation. The corollary is that privative clauses will be of limited effect, being unable to validly exclude review for jurisdictional error.

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